Well, it depends on how you define "serious".
If "serious" means, "will getting a Fluvax ironclad-guarantee save my life this flu season?", well, the answer is Probably Not.
The benefits of this vaccine in one individual is totally unpredictable. You could end up with a severe adverse reaction, but the probability of that is extremely low. On the other end of the spectrum, you could end up being one of the 60% of the population that DOESN'T DIE if a true pandemic hits us and wipes out 40% of the population, as it did in some parts of the world in 1918-19. But the probability of THAT is also extremely low.
The reality is that your personal, direct benefit from getting a ful shot this fall is likely to be unnoticeable to you. If it prevents you getting a bad case of influenza, then you won't be sick in bed wishing you were dead for 5 days and then feeling like you'd been dragged through a knothole backwards by your scrotum for another 10-14 days. Since you won't be noticing those symptoms, you really won't have any perception of benefit. But if you DON'T get the shot and DO get those symptoms, you'll fer damn sure be wishing you HAD got the shot.
The benefits of having the majority of Americans get flu shots is best measured in terms of population benefits. In other words, if you and most of the people in your community get flu shots, fewer old people and fewer babies will die this winter, and the chances of a truly horrible pandemic sweeping through your community this year or in the next 10 years is reduced.
But like Hawkeye says, you pays your money and you takes your chances.
Note: none of the above advice applies to Flave, Shrapnel, the Poohbah, nor any other superhuman members of the 24HCF who I may have, without intending any offense or incurring any liability, legal or otherwise, neglected to mention by name in this disclaimer.
Last edited by DocRocket; 10/22/14. Reason: Fear of de Flave
